Tiberium Earth
by Skywalker195
Summary: My sequel to Tiberium Wars and Kane's Wrath, and conclusion to the Tiberium series.
1. Tiberium Earth

**Disclaimer: **EA fucked up by canceling 'Tiberium', then continued it's abomination by creating C&C 4 on a limited budget and in a rush. I'm here to hopefully rectify their error.

(Garbled Transmissions...)

**EVA: Acquiring**_ data-link with GDI command center in Tokyo..._

**: **_Connection aborted. Reinitializing data-link with GDSS Solomon..._

**: **_Connection successful...Welcome back Commander..._

**:**_ Acquiring command instructions...acquired, distributing commands._

**: **_Commander, tiberium levels have continued to rise exponentially since the detonation of liquid tiberium beneath Temple Prime in Sarajevo. GDI's leading scientist, Dr. Lucian R'shajik has provided the following presentation on the tiberium crisis._

(The screen changes from a holographic projection of the new space station to a recording of Dr. R'shajik seated across from a male news reporter. R'shajik nods his head in response to a previously asked question and brushes aside a dread-lock that moves a little to close to his face before he continues speaking.)

**News Reporter: **"What about the developments in GDI's New Eden blue zone? Can you make any comments on that?"

**R'shajik: **"As I said before, we are still in the process of evaluating ecological damage caused by the liquid tiberium detonation combined with Nod and alien efforts to spread tiberium infestation. One thing is very clear to everyone, and that is that tiberium is spreading faster and sonic technology that was developed previously to counter such problems has becoming increasingly useless."

**News Reporter: **"Do you have any theories at this time as to what could be causing sonic repulsion to become less effective?"

**R'shajik: **"Yes, my only theory at this time, and one I'm still working on is that the explosion in Sarajevo caused a new evolution in tiberium. Experiments that we've conducted in a completely self-contained environment show that this new tiberium is impervious to sonic countermeasures, more difficult to store, twice as potent to the atmosphere and local ecology, and spreads exponentially depending on the amount of tiberium in the area. Now, what we're looking into is the best way to slow the spread as containment seems to be out of the question for now, but the impact on the world is going to be nothing short of cataclysmic."

**News Reporter: **"This is a rather frightening subject, Lucian. Some have said your predicting a dooms-day before the close of the century."

**R'shajik: **"That's correct. New Eden was one of the first yellow zones reclaimed to a blue zone, and now it's back to it's previous yellow zone status and rapidly approaching status as a red zone. All across the world we are seeing the same effects, blue zones are shrinking and red and yellow zones are expanding. Already you can see from satellite imagery of quarantined zones that portions of Washington and New York are now receiving tiberium radiation and Japan, which had previously been free of Tiberium is now in visible range of a new tiberium glacier. There is even restricted footage of portions of the ocean that are turning into this new tiberium substance, it really is something to take serious, it's not just our civilization that's in jeopardy, but the survival of the human species."

(Several click-able square options appear to the right hand side of the display, and EVA automatically selects the second one down, switching to a view of Earth from space, coloring it in three groups of blue, yellow, and red.)

**: **_Blue zones across the globe have been reduced to only fifteen percent of the Earth's surface. Yellow zones now comprise forty percent with red zones an enormous forty-five percent. Several major cities once under the control of GDI have now become wastelands of civil unrest and the few that remain stable are being brought under quarantine as ion storms surge the surrounding areas._

**: **_At noon today, the GDI council met for a conference on how best to tackle the new tiberium crisis. The press was told that sixty percent of the budget would go towards ecological work while GDI maintained as much of a military presence as it could upon numerous accusations that Nod wasn't fully destroyed. This was not the entire statement._

**: **_In secret, GDI has been working on numerous fail safes to preserve humanity and civilization should no adequate solution be found to combat tiberium. Amongst these solutions was the GDSS Solomon, a replica of the Philadelphia, but built with shield and weapons protection to prevent a second incident and self-supporting systems for thirty years. _

**: **_In addition, there are also a number of new ships that have been classified as 'heavy transport' or 'experimental high-orbit disposal carriers' that are actually a new wave of ships to take on a second alien invasion. There is additional intel on extra-Earth projects, but they are classified restricted at this time._

(Garbled Transmissions. A number of purple signs can just barely be made visible in the static that look almost like written Japanese. The letters fade in and out as EVA seems to try and correct itself while simultaneously react as if nothing is out of ordinary.)

**: **_General McNeil requests you contact him immediately for briefing. Good luck, Commander._

**End Transmission**

_Skywalker195 Presents..._

**Command & Conquer:**

**Tiberium Earth**


	2. Act I: Russia Part I

**ACT I**

**Russia-Part I**

**August 7, 2052**

Between relentless rioting in the streets and tiberium encroaching upon lower Manhattan at a more frightening pace each day, nothing was more depressing about flying over New York.

"I imagine the ion storms will be moving in soon, GDI can't ignore the situation much longer." The pilot voiced his opinion to the commander as he noticed him looking out from the other seat in the Orca Personal Transport.

Commander Wyler shook his head once, an almost mournful look scouring his face as dark green eyes met the eerie glow of green tiberium.

"All my life there was never a single crystal in the city until 2047. Virtually every other major city across the globe in a yellow zone and now my home is becoming the next one. I never thought I'd see the day."

Wyler turned his view straight ahead as the pilot maneuvered the ship up towards space. Gravity shifted momentarily, making him feel like there was an something crawling across his face, a feeling that he quickly realized was actually his stubble slowly trying to poke back through his skin like an area recently mined for tiberium. Wyler always made sure to keep his appearance to par with regulations, his face cleanly shaved and mixed brown and red hair cut like a dark shadow and of course his physique that was more robust than most commandos. Now, however, he allowed the stubble to pierce the skin and a few wrinkles spreads across his golden jumpsuit, temporarily giving in to his state of depression. His mood began to clear slightly though as a silver glimmer appeared in orbit telling him they were minutes away from being on board the Solomon.

Several small satellites revolved near and around the station he noticed as he got the first clear look at it in person. Memories of the day the Philadelphia was destroyed rushed back into his mind like a flood. He had just graduated from the academy before, posted to a pencil pusher's position in a closet like office in Washington when sirens wailed and the sky was filled with fire. Within minutes time Nod forces invaded south of his location and he was quickly thrust into action. It was his first time in real action and he had to watch many of his new friends die, but his brilliant tactics in helping repeal the invaders lead to his promotion to commander before the end of the war. Real time came rushing back to him as com static formed into a male's voice with an Austrian accent.

"Approaching shuttle, transmit security codes immediately."

There was a moments pause as the pilot keyed in the code and hit the transmit voice and another few before the voice came back through the speakers.

"Code accepted, Shuttle _Farragut_, you are cleared to dock in bay five, uploading new course to you now."

Leaving no room for response, the transmission ended and the Orca proceeded on the new course. Wyler had expected a strict policy since the last tiberium war, and was quickly backed up when they got close enough to see rail gun emplacements of multiple sizes and what appeared to be shield projection arrays. From his personal computer screen when EVA had showed him the station he'd thought they'd merely replicated the station, but as the doors for bay five opened, he realized it was much larger. The ship pierced the space between space and the station and landed within seconds, allowing a few more for the doors to close and the compartment to compress before forcing his body up and moving down the ramp where he could see a single zone trooper approaching the ship. He continued moving forward and they were only a few feet apart when the trooper stopped and started removing his helmet to reveal...

"Aaliyah?" He smiled through the words upon seeing the face of one of his friends from back in Washington. "

The woman smiled back at her, making her nose seem a bit narrow with the broadness of her grin. She still had a slight tan even though he knew she must have been working in zone ops for at least a year before joining the raiders, but her hair was cut shorter and fixed to stay completely behind her head to accommodate more comfortable for her helmet, though she still kept the undertones of blonde highlights. The most noticeable feature though, as it always had been, were the eyes; light green orbs that seemed to pierce and observe the soul.

"It's good to see you too, John." She welcomed him with an accent of mixed French and German origins.

"What they hell are you doing here?" He asked as he got in range to place a muscled arm around the top of her suit, the two of them turning and beginning to walk out to the corridor. "Last I heard you were up for assignment to GDI Global Headquarters in Reykjavik."

"I was."

"So what are you doing in ZOCOM?"

"Seven months after I was posted to Reykjavik, engineers reported tiberium escaping the boundaries of the sonic emitters. Wasn't long after that New Eden turned back into a yellow zone. Me and a quarter of the other personal there immediately signed up for zone operations."

"Always preferred working with your hands, didn't you?"

The two exited into the corridor which to his surprise was not very crowded. As they continued to walk, Aaliyah spoke as calmly as she had before, but two years of working and being friends with her told him she walked with a sense of failure at her next few words.

"Didn't do much good. Germany's a red zone now again, as is most of western Europe. GDI moved their headquarters to Great Britain. Besides that, Paris is about the only other habitable city in the area now."

"So how'd you end up here?" He asked, deciding rather to get off a subject that was uneasy on them both.

"Because you've been called back into duty."

John laughed like he was back as a cadet in his heavy drinking days, but when he noticed her giving him a serious look, his laughter died back down quickly.

"Your serious?"

"Everyone who takes command outside what's left of the blue zones is being partnered with someone from ZOCOM seeing as we have the most experience and equipment in heavily infested areas, and seeing as we've worked together before, General Renteria felt like we'd make the best team."

"So we're stuck together again, huh."

"Sure looks that way." She agreed as they reached the central elevator that lead up to the command center. As he punched in his codes, he noticed Aaliyah was actually walking away from him.

"Hey, leaving so soon?"

"I'm going to your new ship to get myself settled in, besides I'm not cleared to go up there anyway, I'm just your welcoming party."

"My new ship? Hey wait!"

John tried to call after her, but she was already gone, disappearing around the circular flow of the inner structure. He was still looking as the doors opened to his code, but closed his eyes and took a long breath as he steeped inside and the doors closed again, taking him up to see General McNeil.

**xXx**

As opposed to the lower levels, the command center was abuzz with activity with at least a hundred people spread out across the area all busy keeping up with the daily work of a GDI officer. Directly forward and in the center was a massive view port that allowed a mesmerizing view of Earth, a cascade of blue and green that was both nature and a result of tiberium. When John had taken a few moments to get his barrings about the place, he managed to spot McNeil standing over a holographic display of a range of mountains and tiberium. John walked up beside the general and saluted, but McNeil turned his head and offered him a relaxed smile.

"As you were commander."

John hesitated a moment, but dropped back down into a comfortable position as McNeil straightened himself up before he started speaking again.

"Since the end of the last war GDI High Command had me behind a desk, trying to keep me doing logistical work since tiberium has become a greater priority than Nod."

"You miss the front lines, sir?"

"Your damn right I do. I had a lot of respect for Solomon, but unlike him I'll never get used to staying on an elaborately habitable space rock." McNeil paused for a moment, but quickly regained his smile and pointed back down to the holographic map. "But maybe with the intelligence InOps has supplied, maybe I'll be seeing action first hand again."

Amongst the rocky terrain, John noticed four red glowing objects at each direction of the map that appeared to look like entrances to a bunker.

"LEGION, Kane's super-computer first lead a cyborg attack that wiped out our entire base in this region." McNeil explained. "We were preparing for an immediate counter-attack when a distress call was received from Cheyenne Mountain. By the time we got there, there wasn't a single sign of GDI presence.

"In the attack, LEGION captured the Tacitus. When our scientists last had it, it was becoming unstable, but now we think this leads to the perfect opportunity to decode the device without doing damage. You are to construct a base in the south and get an engineer into each of those control nodes for that cyborg army."

"Sounds easy enough, what about their defenses in the area?"

"We have a liaison from InOps here who should be able to give you some information on that."

McNeil raised his left arm and ushered a gesture for someone to approach. Almost immediately, a young hispanic looking male appeared who John thought looked more appropriate in popular media than this type of job.

"Yes General, can I help you?"

McNeil nodded his head towards Commander Wyler.

"Marcus, this is Commander Wyler, you'll be providing him with intelligence for his upcoming missions."

The InOps officers reached out to give a handshake that John welcomed, but didn't expect the pressure Marcus was able to put into. When they broke back apart, McNeil continued.

"What defenses are in this region?"

Marcus looked down at the map and zoomed in closer to several particular areas around each of the four control nodes and then lastly to the center of the map.

"Each node is protected by Nod lasers and laser fencing, as well as several SAM batteries. In the middle of the region is also a decent sized base that was constructed on top of the GDI base. Aerial insertion of forces is inadvisable, you need to land outside the range of the defenses and build a base there and won't be able to receive reinforcements unless you take those batteries out.

There are also scanners at each of the nodes, so if you get too close to one, a self-destruct sequence will start. Your best bet is to avoid the nodes and any conflict until you've got enough engineers ready to secure the sites and enough forces to quickly get them in. This one will be tough."

"Hm, sounds like fun." Wyler commented with obvious, but non-rude sarcasm.

"You'll be taking command from one of our new Kodiaks." McNeil said, choosing to ignore John's comment. "From there deploy your MCV and get it done as quickly as possible. Kane likely suspects we're coming and will probably be ordering LEGION to either dump the data files or destroy the nodes once they've transmitted the data to their base. Good luck."

"Thank you, sir." John said and saluted again, which McNeil humored him with a salute back... though probably only because someone was actively watching them now.

Making his exit back down the central elevator, John keyed in the button for the Kodiak launch bay that actually had the elevator go down a couple decks before reaching a certain point then moving to the side. When the doors opened back again, he found a single large ship largely resembling the capital ships that hadn't been seen for over a decade facing the massive airlock doors, spurring air to show that it was ready for take off as soon as he was aboard. Wasting no time in pride or vanity to look at his new command ship, John proceeded up the ramp and straight into the bridge.

The Kodiak's command center, which he had seen from outside was ironically the _McNeil_ was another world from what he had imagined. Computer screens lined the walls at different angles, everything coming in at an aesthetically pleasing angle to provide the most essential information and a single, large view port remained amongst the screens at the front of the room. For stations lined the side walls and another two at the back, leaving on a raised platform in the middle a single chair that stood about two more chairs on a lower platform and would offer him a clear view into space, him knowing it was his seat as all the others were already filled...filled by those looking at him.

Walking up a few steps and taking his seat, John gazed down to the seat below and to the right of him to see Aaliyah in a similar golden jumpsuit to his.

"So what are you now, first officer?" John asked, but kept the seriousness in his voice as he felt he should have last time.

"No, ZOCOM tactical specialist and adviser." She said, but smiled as she spoke again with slight humor. "But I guess you could call this guy over here to my left the 'right hand man' your talking about."

Smiling himself, John turned his attention to the man she was referring.

"And what's your name?"

"Captain Jaquan, sir, awaiting your orders." The man spoke, not being but maybe three or four years younger than him, but his posture indicating that he was new to the uniform.

"Are we ready for take off, Jaquan?"

"Yes sir, and our plot is already designated in the nav-computer. Shall we proceed?"

"Get the engines rocking."

"Yes sir." The captain turned his attention to a lieutenant on the adjacent wall. "Tell them we're ready for take off."

The lieutenant confirmed and spoke into his microphone. Within a minute's time, the bay decompressed and the doors opened to show a view mixed of Earth and open space. Wyler never could have imagined before now how it had felt for McNeil during the second tiberium war, but now as he could feel his heart beating and his blood burning hot, he knew the exhilaration was like no other. In another instant the computer screens, which had already been lined with en-coded information now changed to mostly visual displays, and as the ship pointed back down towards the planet, the view screen changed to a black background with the three letters E.V.A.

"What's going on?" Wyler asked, not expecting to see anything but pristine views of the Earth as they entered the atmosphere.

"The Kodiak virtually links you with EVA and your construction yard." Jaquan informed him. "It's an impressive system, you might have the battle won before we even get close enough to deploy reinforcements.

John had no time to get further adjusted to the new system that he thought he'd be dealing with directly from an operations center, as the front screen changed from the three letters to a usual EVA background and he heard the typical voice that every commander would hear when they were about to take charge.

**EVA: **_Establishing battlefield control...standby..._


	3. Russia Part II

**Russia-Part II**

When the map loaded on the main screen, it was much easier to distinguish the entire area than it had been on board the _Solomon_, but at the same time there was a shroud, the fog of war covering most parts of the battlefield. Unfortunately for GDI and Nod alike, it was typical protocol to jam portions of the battlefield, something that could only be remedied by sending units to explore the area or to do an advanced sensor scan. After another moment, when Wyler had enough time to order his MCV to deploy, four areas behind the shroud opened up.

**EVA: **_Incoming transmission..._

**: **_Commander, these control nodes contain valuable information regarding LEGION's whereabouts and functionality. Capture them. _EVA announced while snap shots of each of the four locations showed on screen.

**: **_Heavy activity has been detected in the area. Marked of Kane patrols scout the area, so you must avoid detection or they will raise an alarm, starting a timed detonation sequence. _EVA showed orbital surveillance footage of several small scouting parties of mixed cyborg units that moved across the field before finally the screen returned to normal, one last message showing up in writing while EVA spoke.

**: **_Secondary objective received; Destroy Marked of Kane base power supply._

"EVA," Wyler spoke, looking intrigued by the new objective on screen. "more information on secondary objectives."

**: **_The enemy base is powered by six reactors in two locations, the one to the east for control node and base power, and one to the west for base defense. Destroy these power plants and self-destruct sequence will be aborted if active and the base will be defenseless to your forces. _The super-computer informed him while giving him the tactical locations of the power plants on screen.

Wyler thought about this new, critical piece of data. His base was small, consisting only of a construction yard, refinery, two power plants, a barracks, and a war factory, but the few units he could build with the barracks and war factory should be enough to attack the power plants and take them out before they could all be destroyed. Immediately seeing the benefit in this new course of action, he knew exactly what the best course of action would be.

"Alright, captain, have four Predators and four APCs deployed, and tell the barracks to deploy two divisions of Rockeeters and two divisions of Riflemen."

"Yes sir." He acknowledged, and within seconds all of the units he asked for were waiting patiently outside their accompanying structure.

"Get those men in the APCs." Wyler ordered with determination radiating out more than he had since he first received his mission. "Let's forget all discretion, go around their base and find those power plants. Take out the ones to the west first, then move to the east."

The forces, as he could see from the screen, applied the new commands immediately and rolled out of the compound north-westerly until they were blocked by a concrete wall between them and the power plants. The tanks and the rocket wielders in the APCs fired over the walls and into the power plants, but almost immediately, a patrol of three cyborg units came up behind them and started shooting. It wasn't long after that, words were heard behind the gun fire...human-robotic words.

"Enemy units detected. Engage self-destruct sequence."

**: **_Warning! Destruction sequence has been initiated, five minutes remaining!_

**: **_Unit lost! _EVAs voice came through without compassion as John watched the same APC loaded with Riflemen that had helped take out two of the cyborgs exploded into thousands of pieces as the last cyborg, already stripped of it's legs fired a final barrage of chain gun fire before exploding itself.

"Damn, these...things don't play!" One of the APC's drivers said to no one in particular as the rest of the units took out all of the defenses and automatically began moving back down below the base and to the east side to take out the rest of the power plants.

**: **_Four minutes remaining. Enemy base defenses offline._

"Commander, with their anti-air turrets offline, we can drop in reinforcements if you wish." The captain notified him.

Wyler looked between to clock counting down for the self-destruct sequence and timer for their insertion. They could still get in there at least two minutes before the counter reached zero.

"Contact _Solomon_ and request drop pod deployment." Wyler said while watching the timer go below three and a half minutes. "It's the only way we can get our men in their quick enough."

"Request accepted, sir. ETA on reinforcements, one minute fifteen seconds."

The remaining three APCs continued through the base to the opposite side, fortunate to take little fire due to the disabled defenses, and began assaulting the remaining power plants. With every second more cyborgs began to appear from the factories, but his forces managed to take out all the plants just as the machines took out his last unit, stopping the timer indefinitely at two minutes, nineteen seconds.

**: **_Objective achieved. Capture the control nodes to gain access to LEGION's network._

John felt relieved for the moment, but he knew just because the tide of the battle had turned didn't mean it couldn't change in a flash. He allowed himself to take a more leisurely approach, however, as the timer counted to zero on the drop pods.

**: **_Reinforcements have arrived._

On cue, three small pods touched down towards the front of the base, releasing a total of nine grenadiers. The light orange armor reflected well the special helmets they each wore as well as the large grenades that each carried, ready to wipe out infantry in seconds. It was difficult to tell by insignia, but upon directing the unit to be selected for further analysis, John could see that each trooper was already at maximum enlisted status. Upon being selected, the leader of the group relayed a message back to the commander.

"Sir, we have visual on cyborgs approaching the base. We can hold them off, but we'll need base defenses to keep them from over-running the base."

**:**_ New objective received. LEGION's cyborg army has been alerted to our presence and has instigated a counter-attack. Build two Watchtower turrets to dissuade further assault._

"Have a watchtower placed near the barracks and the power plants." John ordered, seeing as the location provided little gap between defenses and actually allowed some over lap. He thought about the attack another moment longer and then thought of how to help prevent his reinforcements from getting wiped out as well. "And get a medic out there too. I don't want any needless casualties today."

"Already on it, sir." Said the lieutenant John recognized from earlier during launch.

The towers were the first order to be fulfilled, their cheap cost combined with prefabrication systems allowed them to be set up within mere seconds. Finally, the medic came running out at a slow pace towards the grenadiers. Lumbering at a slow pace due to his medical case, he finally caught up with the squad just as a platoon of cyborgs reached the edge of the shroud, laying down bullets like rain as the watchtower vulcan cannons opened fire in conjunction. The grenadiers responded within a few hits, managing to help take out the first wave rather quickly. Wyler had been worried about losing any of his men, but fortunately the medic had managed to keep the men in good shape while the watchtowers cut down the rest of the cyborgs.

"That's it commander, the cyborgs are retreating!"

John allowed a smile to cross his face, but there was still work to do.

"Time to finish this. Build an airfield and train four engineers. We're gonna use our transports to pick them up and get them quickly over to the nodes."

**:** _Commander, your base is already running on borderline low power. If you construct an airfield at this time, you will lose your radar and watchtower defenses._

Wyler almost sighed at the set back. "Cut power to the war factory and barracks. We need that air field since without their SAM sights online, ox transports are their best way in and out of their."

**: **_Power is now offline to those facilities._

That was the only confirmation he got, or the he felt necessary, as the building que on screen showed ten seconds for the MCV to assemble an airfield and twenty seconds to furnish the engineers he needed. John felt blessed with himself and the mission, until right as his air field came online the worst case scenario seemed to unfold before his eyes.

**: **_The enemy base has reestablished power to their self-destruct system. Time until detonation, two minutes._

Shit! The third of his engineers was already coming out of the barracks, but it would still take time to get them over to the nodes and shut the sequence down, and with only enough credits gathered so far to supply them with transports, there was no way he could risk the forces he had to take out their generators again.

"Alright, we all knew they would most likely start rebuilding their power plants as soon as we took them down. Our only option now is to get those men into the transports before we're out of time and get them in those nodes!"

Finishing completion, the four engineers came together as the V-35 Ox flew in from out of the map's radius and landed next to the engineers. John had always felt most comfortable sending in his troops using the oxs. Their aerodynamic design that resembled a narrow bird combined with it's two powerful and direction changing VTOL engines made it his quickest way across the battlefield, and even with little armor with no anti-air, there was nothing to damage it in the first place. The four engineers wasted no time scurrying into the craft and it likewise took off with haste as the clock had already counted down to a minute and twenty-four seconds as they reached the first drop zone.

The ox lowered back down to the ground just long enough to allow the engineer to depart before raising straight back up into the air again. The engineer maneuvered between the three turrets connected to the hub, all of which resembled a three-leafed clover with a menacing twist, until he reached inside the node.

"I'm in, sir." The engineer transmitted to the _McNeil_ once he was set up inside. "I'm patching into the core now. I'll try and get all the information I can it's just...so much information...these processors are almost like a mini-core themselves!"

"Don't worry about searching the entire core, just download what you need and get out. The other three can get more information." Wyler commanded with urgency behind his voice.

Another engineer had already made it into a second sight and the transport was almost ready to set down again, but he felt a bead of sweat begin to move down his brow as the timer went below a minute. When he was briefed he knew this was going to be a close call mission, but he had hoped it would never come this close. At last, the last engineer made it into the final node as the timer reached down to less than twenty seconds. EVA issued an 'objective complete', but he still continued to sweat as the timer continued to count down and he prayed inside his mind that the engineers could get the information before the nodes detonated whatever type of self-destruct mechanism they had. By the time the clock reached seven seconds though, he finally got his relief.

"I've found the destruct program, sir, shutting down now." The last engineer informed him, which was confirmed as the timer stopped it's count down.

**: **_Incoming transmission._

The entire screen changed to show General McNeil from what appeared to be his private office aboard the _Solomon_. With a smile on his face, his words could never have been premeditated.

"I'll be damned, you pulled through better than even I thought you would commander. We're already getting all the data we need here and more." He said with almost bewilderment, but then changed to a more serious tone and a few wrinkles revealed themselves upon his forehead as he changed his posture. "I doubt they'll let us download the whole core before they retaliate. Get your men out of there, we have all we need to man a full assault on their base, and I'm going to need you there. After all, I think with this they might just let me take command in the field myself. I don't know who's going to be giving you orders from now on, but you haven't seen the last of me."

With one final smile, McNeil said his final words before ending the transmission.

"Well done commander."

As the screen cut back out to show the snow capped mountains of in the central region of Siberia, John was almost ready to give orders to head for the nearest GDI command center when Aaliyah spoke up for the first time during the mission.

"General Renteria has given dispatch orders to all local ZOCOM units. I have the coordinates for you if you wish to go ahead and move into the region, or we could just await further orders."

John thought about it a few moments while his engineers abandoned the nodes and headed back for the base.

"Let's pack 'em up and roll out. I'm not giving Nod any time to rest."

"Yes sir." Aaliyah said with more amusement and sarcasm than seriousness. It didn't matter however, as the Kodiak type vessel moved out and EVA came back up on screen, static showing up for a few seconds where John almost though he saw purple letters, but dismissed it as interference as she spoke.

**: **_Mission Accomplished._


End file.
